Tuesday, June 14, 2022 - Storming a Castle

 Guest written by Evie Richgels 

Evie Richgels. Can you guess what our topic is for  today?

We got up earlier today and we all ate breakfast. Then we got our armor ready for storming the castle. Basically we got dressed, put on sunscreen and brushed our teeth. Oh, and we packed our swim suits because after storming the castle we're going swimming.

The castle we're going to storm is the Château de Suscinio which is about 40 minutes away from here on the other side of the Gulf of Morbihan. 

We found the parking lot easily. The first thing we had to do is buy our tickets and use the bathroom. Now we're ready to storm the castle. 

Evie and Penny ready to storm the castle

The castle looks very old and has lots of towers that look like they would be fun to climb. It looks old because one tower was totally broken down. It has a moat. (Grandma says the castle was built about 700 years ago.)  

Evie, Penny, and Randy checking out the moat of the castle and the broken down tower

swans in the moat

We crossed into the castle on a wooden bridge that looks like it used to be a drawbridge. 

Grandma went into the courtyard because we first explored the inside of the castle and it has a lot of stairs that Grandma can't do. 

stairs in a tower of the castle

there are slits for dropping things to attack (there's a little grate under Penny's dress

playing a game

Penny in a fire place

There was something really cool in one of the rooms about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It was projected onto a wall. Even though it was in French, I wanted to watch it. Papa could translate a lot of it for me.

We also saw a room with tiles on the wall. Only they used to be the floor of the church that was outside the castle and got destroyed a long time ago and forgotten about. They had a dig and discovered the floor buried under a lot of dirt. 

We walked along the top of the walls (Grandma says they're called ramparts) and looked out over a lake that connected to the ocean and when we looked into the courtyard, we saw Grandma. 

waving from the ramparts

Evie, Penny, and Dad walking the ramparts

We had to explore one more tower. It had something about the fairy tales of Brittany, but it was all in French. We had to go down a whole bunch of stairs to get out to the courtyard.

We went outside the castle and saw a royal hunting camp. They had fancy tent to eat in. There was a hunting tent that had all the supplies for hunting. There was a tent about raising hawks (Grandma says that's falconry). We had to look at animal poop and pawprints to learn how to track different animals. 

the castle from the hunting camp

Evie and Penny eating like a king

the hunting camp

Penny driving Grandma's scooter

We went back to the book store. There were a lot of interesting books but they were all in French. But I asked Papa to buy me a book about oceans even though it was in French. Grandma will translate it for me. 

book about the ocean

Breton fairy tales

Breton myths and legends

We went to the bathroom quick, went to the parking lot, and drove to a park near the beach. 

There are lots of natural areas behind the dunes.

at the beach

First we ate lunch at a picnic table near a playground. My favorite thing was the monkey bars. It was hard because it went up and down and I couldn't make it all the way, but almost. 

Then we went on this really cool plastic walkway that covered the dune and we were at the beach. We went swimming for a couple of hours. The water was cold so we could only stay in for a little bit. We found all kinds of little rocks and 2 seashells. 

Aaaahhh the beach

Evie and Penny collected cool rocks

There was a sailing school near us on the beach. These boats were practicing sailing.

I didn't want to go home yet, so Grandma said we could look at the port to see all the sailboats at the dock. 

Evie walking the dock

Mom and Dad and sailboats

panorama of Evie and Penny and sailboats

Then we had to go home. We went around a total of 49 round-abouts on our way there and back. That's a lot. 

Evie's view from the back of the car

When we got home we had apéros and then we had chicken, broccoli, and roast potatoes. And ice cream for dessert. Now it's time for us to go to bed so we get enough sleep and can go on a new adventure tomorrow. 

flowers on the wall on the patio

We plan to go to the market in Vannes to buy some more yummy fruits. And I wants to go to the bakery to pick out a treat. So good night from Evie (with typing by Grandma)